Iowa State hung with ninth ranked Missouri all night but the Tigers made the plays down the stretch for a 76-69 win over the Cyclones in Hilton Coliseum. Iowa State led it 38-36 at the halftime break but coach Fred Hoiberg felt his team was outhustled in the opening half and that continued in the second half.
“We could have come out of the lockerroom and had some momentum and corrected things, but they made the effort plays all night. We executed our game plan perfectly tonight. They make five threes in 21 attempts. We just weren’t tough enough,” Hoiberg said.
It was the Cyclones first loss in Big 12 play as they drop to 2-1 in the conference. Hoiberg says he thought they would come out with “a ton of fire and purpose” like they did in the first two games, but he said they let some small things bother them.
Iowa State was outrebounded 36-25 and the Cyclones made only 13 of 25 from the foul line. “It’s disappointing because I felt we should have won this game,” Hoiberg says. “That’s the hard thing because I felt we threw this one away.”
Scott Christopherson led the Cyclones with 21 points as he connected on four of six from three point range. Iowa State falls to 12-4 overall.